About 2½ miles to the southwest, ESPN and the UT System are litigants, aligned on opposite sides of a lawsuit filed in the Travis County Courthouse at 10th Street and Guadalupe.

It's an ironic twist in the increasingly conjoined worlds of television, sports and jurisprudence — another example of the scope of ESPN Inc., as it conducts business with universities as a program provider, in the case of the 20-year, $300 million agreement to establish the Longhorn Network, while covering the same schools for SportsCenter, Outside the Lines and its other news and information programs.

On the programming front, ESPN and Texas are marching in lockstep toward Aug. 26, when the Longhorn Network will go on the air as the first network devoted to one school. LHN will air more than 200 live events, including a Sept. 3 football game between UT and Rice.

On the lawsuit front, ESPN and Texas are at odds over a request by ESPN reporter Paula Lavigne to obtain correspondence, under the Texas Open Records Act, from UT-Austin president Bill Powers during the summer of 2010 when it appeared the Big 12 Conference was about to implode.

The conference survived — thanks, in part, to promises of increased rights fees from ESPN and Fox Sports Net — and the lawsuit endures, too.

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Powers wears two hats

Houston attorney Joe Larsen, who represents ESPN, said Texas has provided about 100 pages of documents received by Powers in his role during 2010 as chairman of the Big 12's board of directors.

It has refused, however, to turn over a document from the UT System staff, described as a legal analysis of provisions governing withdrawal of schools from the Big 12, citing attorney-client privilege. ESPN has filed a motion arguing in favor of allowing access to the document.

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"The attorney-client privilege is one of the most overused defenses to releasing information," Larsen said. "It should be very strictly construed.

"The supreme irony of this is that they are claiming that Powers acts sometimes as chairman of the Big 12 and sometimes as president of UT-Austin. They can't have it both ways. He is both. If they have given something to him as president of Texas, they have given it to the chairman of the Big 12."

"How can Bill Powers be both chairman of the Big 12 and president of UT-Austin? Well, he just is," Cousar said. "It's more interesting to me, how can ESPN be both the partner in the Longhorn Network and be this determined adversary in court? I find that to be intellectually challenging."

From ESPN's vantage point, company spokesman Mike Soltys said, "ESPN has business relationships with many high-profile sports entities, and at the same time our news side aggressively covers them. This is just the latest example."

Among the documents the university has provided to ESPN are a June 2010 letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe, requesting financial information about the Big 12, and two messages from Texas fans to athletic director DeLoss Dodds about the future of the Big 12.

Among the documents the university has provided to ESPN are a June 2010 letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe, requesting financial information about the Big 12, and two messages from Texas fans to athletic director DeLoss Dodds about the future of the Big 12.

Khator states UH's case

Also included is an email to Powers from Renu Khator, president of the University of Houston, in which Khator lobbies for UT's support should there be significant college realignment.

"You have always emphasized academic excellence and I wanted you to see how we compare academically to other teams in the old Big 12 …" Khator wrote. "Whatever happens in this conference realignment, I wanted you to know our academic strength and athletic potential.

"Of course, it would be wonderful to have your support in whatever form you could provide for us to achieve a more competitive setting for UH. Thank you and all the best! UT carries Texas' banner in the nation and I want to see the very best for UT come out of this."

Charts accompanying Khator's email showed that UH ranks third among the original Big 12 schools plus UH and TCU in enrollment and highlighted UH's standing in other categories.